2013 ist schon da! A new Kaffeeklatsch thread for the New Year - living in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

All welcome - whether you're living in Germany or Austria, have questions about life in those countries or just want to chat.

Previous thread here.

We had to wade through about a foot of snow to get to KiGa this morning; I can't believe how much it snowed overnight (and it's still coming down). I've cancelled my appointment with the dermatologist this afternoon to have my stitches out, as there's no way I want to drive in this weather - in fact, DH has just phoned to tell me to cancel it (I already had). Quite a few car drivers this morning were having problems turning into our road; I saw cars being pushed and one of our neighbours was helping to clear snow from the road in front of cars that were stuck.

cheas That's slightly worrying, but I'm telling myself it's only one study... I googled it and one article mentioned that vitamins may include more iron or copper than the body needs; I'd read somewhere before that you shouldn't supplement with iron unless a doctor advises you to do so.

Antique I have a nice sewing box from Lidl - I wonder whether it's the same one.

KiGa? School, I mean!

cheas I'm debating exactly the same thing about walking or taking the car. Trouble is if I take the car I have to clear the drive first but if I walk I can't get as much shopping. I have to shop today as my teens have eaten everything they could find in my cupboards and emptied the chocolate and biscuit drawer yesterday.

I'd be interested in finding a German WeBuy site too. Do you think they still take videos? I've got a shelf full and although we do still have an old video player we never watch them. Sentimental value only for ds's first ever film when he was a tot (Disney's Pinocchio) but what's the point in keeping it? when he's a dad he won't be able to watch it or show his dc it as he won't have a video player.

merlioness have you got any set dates yet? Will you be shipping everything back over here? That's my one fear of having to move continents - shipping stuff! I can cope with packing a truck and sending it off to the next destination but somehow feel the organisation would be so complicated if I had to ship stuff! Infact, I think I'd get rid of everything except a few boxes worth and start over new (and be minimalist like on the minimalist thread).

We´ve got so many dvds and videos I´d love to get rid of. DH seems to be addicted to buying dvds everytime he goes shopping. We have completely different tastes, so he has loads that are still in the wrappers because he hasn´t found time to watch them.

Merlioness Is your dh´s new job a relocation, so that you´ll get help with relocation costs? I´m in Hessen, but further north near Kassel.

Has anyone been to Lidl yet? My nearest one is about 15km away, so I´d like to know if it´s worth making the journey. They seem to have stopped selling the salt and vinegar chipsticks which were so delicious.

cheas I used to have a rear wheel drive car and hated driving in snow. In fact if the snow was really bad, I could never get up the hill from my garage to the main road.

Linzer do you have to go out again to pick the dc up or can they walk home from school?

The dc´s school is being inspected next week, so I´m quite interested in what they´ll find. I don´t envy the teachers having been through Ofsted inspections myself in England. The parents and children in the 3. and 4. Klassen have already filled in on-line questionnaires, so maybe they´ll use those to inform the areas they want to focus on.

Our Lidl had no cheddar Apparently only the bigger branches have it, boo! I didn't bother with the sewing box as it wasn't as nice as I thought but I did get a bag of fudge, which I'm looking forward to opening this afternoon. I also got a nice down-filled coat down to half price in the Mango sale though so it wasn't a wasted trip!

Oh and I looked at a German site a while ago which buys dvds, books etc but I can't remember what it was called. I'll ask dh if he remembers tonight & report back

Hello all, hope you don't mind me jumping into your thread! We are currently looking into the possibility of a relocation to Frankfurt, had a search on Living Overseas and everyone said to post here so here I am.

Am just looking for a bit of general advice if anyone could help that would be great. Firstly I guess, how do you find it there? Is it a nice place to live? Safe? How is the cost of living, dh is considering a role with a 70k Euro salary, is this realistic in terms of rental prices etc? He would be the sole earner initially. Would you recommend living in the City or suburbs?

Is it an easy place to live with limited German? German lessons are in progress so it wouldnt be an issue forever.

Wrt healthcare, is it all private healthcare? How are the local schools for kindergarten age?

We are currently based in Zurich, which is really family friendly. It is safe, clean, great public transport but high cost of living. It is also a very easy City in which to live with basic German as most people speak English (even when you try with German). DS is currently in a private kindergarten but will move to local in August if we stay here (in private currently due to birthdate cut off point, missed entrance last intake by 4 weeks). DS has good German and Suisse Deutch language knowledge already so the transition for him shouldnt be too difficult.

If you have any links for forums, websites for rental acommodation etc that would be super.

The DDs are at each other's throats downstairs (DD1 seems to be particularly enjoying winding up DD2 today), so I've decided to escape upstairs for a bit.

Hi scorchienne, I'm in Austria so not much help with your questions but there are a few other posters in the Frankfurt area on the thread. (OTOH I do have fairly detailed information on towns in the Taunus area should you ever happen to need it!)

Antique Mmm, fudge sounds good, will have to look out for it next week.

hupa I got out of doing the school run at lunchtime as it's only DS who doesn't walk home on his own, and he went to a friend's straight after school. I've had plenty of fresh air after a second round of snow shovelling, however!

admylin Did you drive or walk to the shops in the end? Even if I could manage to get my car out of the piles of snow surrounding it, I wouldn't want to drive - luckily I don't think I'll need to until next week (have told the DDs they don't need to go to Musikkunde today).

DS's friend's mum has offered to take my stitches out when I pick up DS; her BIL is a doctor and she works at his surgery, so hopefully she knows what she's doing (I'd thought she was more of a receptionist)! Otherwise, my next door neighbour is also a doctor's receptionist and has said she'll fit me in tomorrow morning (but that would involve a drive/long walk through the snow, which I'd rather avoid if possible).

Linzer good luck with getting the stitches out. It'd be good if you don't have to drive in all that snow anyway.
After seeing your drive and all those steps on fb I decided my tiny drive wasn't much to have to clear after all so I did it in 10 minutes and took the car so I could stock up on lots of tins of beans at Lidl and loads of fruit and snacks to keep my teens happy. They must both be growing again as they're constantly hungry at the moment!

scorchienne we're in Hanover and used to live in Berlin and before that Tuebingen! I'd quite like to live in Frankfurt, big city but with plenty of countrysid eand things to visit around about. On the Salary your dh has been offered you should have no problem being able to afford to rent a decent sized house but you could look on immobilienscout24.de to check areas and what's on offer.

Antique did you sell anything online? (books or films)? Enjoy the fudge, I didn't dare buy any as the way my dc are at the moment they'd scoff the whole bag in minutes and I'd rather like them to eat more fruit (seeing as I now have 3 or 4 kg of apples in the house)!

Hupa did you bother going to Lidl? I saw they had crisps with salt and balsamico, salt and pepper and salted hand cooked but as you say those salt and vinager sticks were the best. We had the baked beans and thick cut chips for lunch today with lots of strong malt vinager, yum.

Hello!
Well DS is now 16 days old and I swear he is growing before my eyes! It's so strange. He is starting to fill out, after being such a skinny newborn he is starting to develop a bit more baby podge, I've noticed a double chin coming along when he is feeding :)
We have resorted to topping him up at night-time (after final feed) with formula to help us all sleep. Last night he took about 40ml and slept from 12:00-05:00 ish, it was fantastic!

My Mum stayed with us the last two nights and it was fantastic, she was so chilled and supportive, she cooked for us and did some other little jobs that needed sorting. She also settled DS for us both nights she was here so DP and I could go to bed and have cuddle for 20 minutes :) We're managing to get out for a little walk most days. But then the are days like today when the hebamme is supposed to come between 14:00 & 15:00 and still hasn't arrived we don't seem to be getting on very well with her I have the feeling that she isn't comfortable when she is here and always seems in such a rush. Anyway, enough of me moaning! (But I needed that and I hope you don't mind)
DS is starting to have a bit more awake and aware time. It is so much fun to see him staring at lights or DP's beard face can't wait for real little smiles :)

Oh, someone was asking about sites for selling books, CDs and stuff: we've used rebuy.de and DP was happy with it.

Hello to the new members (feel like Marjorie daws from fat fighters - if anyone would get a little Britain ref :) ) and welcome! I'm not even going to pretend I'm managing to keep up with the thread and read everything but I am lurking and will try and post occasionally.
Grinch have everything crossed for you and hope you make some progress with the sleep training of DS2! I really struggle without enough sleep and don't know how you have managed for so long.

admylin the comments on your DD's test were really rather unnecessary! I hope she gets some support from the dyslexia teacher to counteract that.

platanos thank you for the well wishes!

weiss nice to see you back on here, congratulations on your DD! Hope DS starts longer at four weeks

Can't help but smile at the people running off to buy cheddar this week. Although of course, if I get the chance I'll be sending DP to lidl buying some for myself :o

Linzer and I think it was cheas... How do you manage to read so much while BF? I try and keep an eye on DS because if he starts to fight with the wind in his poor little system he pulls on my nipples when arching his back and that really hurts! He does the most incredible farts! Poor little man...

nutella I didn't mention reading a lot while bf, I don't think (must have been someone else), but I did read a lot. DD fell asleep feeding a lot at the beginning though, so my problem was more that her mouth gradually slipped further and further down my nipple, which was also pretty painful.

I had a similar thing with my hebamme - she always seemed in a rush and not really around long enough for me to get round to unburdening any worries I might have had. Other people with the same midwife said the same (and said the same about other midwives they'd had with previous dc), so I guess it's relatively common. I think my midwife was just overbooked - she works at the hospital, but runs ante-natal classes, baby massage groups and does reflexology from her home on a freelance basis as well.

Thanks for the tip about rebuy.de. I will have to check it out.

Hello, scorchienne. I don't know much about living in the Frankfurt area, but 70k sounds like a reasonable salary for a single-earner family. Definitely check out the situation with health insurance. DH is privately insured, which was a lot cheaper on a high salary than paying state insurance, but now we're married and have a child together, we have to pay for each of us separately, whereas DD and I would be included as "familienversichert" if DH had state insurance. There's no way back into state insurance once you are privately insured, though (except in very specific circumstances). I know there was talk about banning high earners from opting out of state insurance, whether this might now apply I don't know.

Normally someone employed by a company is "pflichtversichert" with one of the state insurance companies (you have to choose one) and a set percentage of salary goes to the insurance company, plus the employer pays something (I think). There is (or was) a figure above which you could opt out and go and choose a private insurer, which might cost less per month, but involve a large excess. Doctors earn more from private patients, which sometimes means they are seen faster (you can imagine the joy that causes in a crowded waiting room), plus some insurance packages include guaranteed treatment by a consultant, or a private room in hospital, that sort of thing.

Hi scorchienne. I don't live far from Frankfurt. I'm on my phone now but will get on the laptop later to have a look at your questions.

I went to another Lidl this afternoon & stocked up on cheddar. They had a crafty stuff Aktion too so I bought some needles and sock wool, (inspired by cheas) thinking socks can't be too hard... The instructions might as well be in Klingon for all I understand! Think this is going to be a very slow project!

I've now totally forgotten what else I wanted to write so sorry for not name-checking. Ds is hanging off my cardigan sleeve so had better go :-)

Hello Nutella - dust, dust, bit of dust? :O You are getting far too much sleep though, stop it, it isn't fair that my 20 month old sleeps worse than the newborns!

Antique does Lidl have kids craft stuff or just grown up type stuff for knitting and sewing? I'm on a toddlers group stock up and craft activity planning streak atm. Fudge sounds good too, Lidl is a bit of a treck though, 20km or so, mind you most things are...

www.bookswapper.de is an option to swap English books if that is an option instead of selling... Germany only.

Hello Meerlioness and scorchienne I am no use to you as I know nothing about Frankfurt (well I once went there for 2 days with work, about 15 years ago - I don't think that counts!) I'm in Bavaria, about 40km out of Munich.

Admylin and Linzer well done on all the snow shovelling - I did the pavement outside our house and our drive at 7am as I was expecting to be out all morning, but it has been snowing all day and of course you can't tell I did it - I should have been out re-shovelling every 2 hours like all the other good HausFraus (Hausefrauen - what's the plural?) but I am a lazy English slattern so I have not bothered - really struggle to see the point while the snow is still falling!

cheas the snow seems to have caused problems this time doesn't it, don't know what's going on, usually there are no issues but DH is stuck in standing traffic on the motorway atm and has been for almost an hour, and my train into Munich was cancelled this morning (luckily as it turned out, as when I got my phone out to let my friend know I would be late I saw a message from her cancelling as she woke up ill!) Sure snow doesn't usually cause havok here!

Better go and get the kids in from sledging as its getting dark - DS1 is meant to be at football training, but I forgot and let him go out with his friend when he called around and felt it would be too mean to stop them after only 10 mins and make him go to football - oops, hope DH forgets to ask as he always tuts if I don't take them to scheduled activities unless they are ill....

Wave to whoever I missed!

Sorry cheas... Not sure who it was then... But he also falls asleep and gradually slips off, oh or bites! Jeez! I've offered to try and demonstrate to DP how painful it is ....

I'm honestly sorry about the sleeping Grinch! But if it makes you feel better dust is very low in fat and you can have as much dust as you like! Or, get a piece of cake, cut it in half and then, it's only half the calories!!

Little man now weighs 3370g, he is growing fast! A baby with painful wind in his tummy is no fun at all, but is it wrong to find the resulting incredible wind hilarious?

Friend attempted to take out my stitches at her kitchen table with a sharp pair of scissors and me holding a torch but unsurprisingly conditions weren't ideal, and she only managed to get four of the six of them out. So I'll be going to the GP tomorrow morning, but at least my neighbour said she'd get him to fit me in first thing and I can get a lift into town with her DH.

Grinch I felt absolutely no guilt whatsoever about letting the DDs play out in the snow this afternoon rather than going to Musikkunde - mainly because it would have taken a good hour altogether to walk there and back, and there was no way I was getting the car out. All the snow shovelling I did on the drive has been reshovelled more neatly by our elderly neighbour - I did wonder why we bothered to clear a path up to her house (three times today) if she's capable of shovelling the huge quantities of snow in front of the houses.

Nutella It's amazing how quickly they grow, isn't it? I remember most of the 0-3 month clothes we had for DD1 were far too big for her when she was born, but she'd grown out of them after a month.
It was only with DD1 that I had so much time for reading, as she used to feed for hours on end (half an hour was an extremely short feed for her). The other two would rarely feed for much more than five minutes at a time, which I used to worry about - I'm sure someone (doctor/midwife) told me that they really needed to feed for a minimum of 10 minutes - but they put on weight OK. I hardly managed to read at all with DS, as I had to feed him in a quiet room in the dark... the other two didn't start getting distracted by other people talking etc. until they reached about 6 months, but he would stop feeding at the slightest sound/movement.

admylin I've often read on MN about how much teenagers eat and how they're constantly emptying the cupboards... at the moment I can't imagine mine being like that, as they eat so little even compared with other children younger than them - although DS would probably eat endless sweets if I let him.

Hello
I will attempt a post, although I feel a bit like before a house move with lots of packing to do and you dont know where to start. I am not even going to attempt to namecheck. but hopefully I'll be on here again more regularly now which will make it easier to keep up! I have read most of your posts though!

Hello to merlioness and scorchienne! how funny that you are both moving to the same area! I am not too far from Frankfurt myself - about an hour by car. scorchienne your dh' salary should be sufficient. my dh is on about the same, but we have 3dc, and I dont work either. Frankfurt may be slightly more expensive than where we are, but not that much more.
re health insurance. we are on normal state subsidised health insurance. we could go private, but done haveto. as I am not working it would work out much much more expensive with private health insurance.

I did realise that I dont really know where many of you are based at all. I now linzer and platanos are near Vienna, grinch is near Munich and ploom somewhere else in Bavaria, and admylin and nutella are in Hanover. where is everyone else?

we had just a little bit of snow these last few days. I could clear the footpath with a broom rather than a snow shovel, and I have to say I'm quite grateful for that as I still have that stinking cold.

another night for me to take the boys to bed by myself. but it could be much much worse. as ds1 and ds2 need a very strict routine in order to cope, bedtime isnt too bad. each boy gets a little story before bed, so we all start off in ds3' room, then he is put to bed. then off to ds2' room for the 2nd book, then he goes to sleep. and then it's off to ds3 room. overall it takes me 30 mins for all boys to be in bed and be quiet, and i think that's not really too bad is it.

I'm off to my gynaecologist tomorrow morning to finally have the coil removed. I cant wait, just hope it's not too unpleasant.

admylin I don't think we did sell any dvds or cds in the end as they were only offering a euro or so each (even less in some cases) and they wouldn't take dvds which didn't have a German language option, which ruled a lot of ours out, so we didn't bother.

I'm glad it's going so well, Nutella :) I read a lot while bfing but DS used to feed for 2 hours at a time and used to fall asleep and carry on suckling so a bf cushion and my Kindle saved my sanity in the early days! Love the latest picture, he's adorable!

Grinch As far as I could see Lidl only had stuff for knitting and sewing for grown-ups. The only things I really saw for kids were a few Karneval costumes.

Linzer Hope you manage to get the rest of the stitches out without too much trouble in the morning! Will you get a lift home as well or will you have to ski through all the snow?

outnumbered I'm in Wiesbaden, so possibly not too far from you by car (I'll have to ask Google though, my German geography is terrible!) How did bedtime go? Good luck for tomorrow!

scorchienne I think the others have covered insurance already. You should be fine renting on that salary. DH earns less than that and I'm not earnining and we areok. (We have one toddler DC.) Try ImmoScout for rented properties.
Toytown is sometimes quite useful for making contact with people and for general information.
There are loads and loads of expats here and most people speak English. I can't help with Kindergarten I'm afraid as I haven't even registered DS yet, even though it's been on my to-do list for ages. Hope this helps!

antique I just had a look. google says it's exactly 1 hour to Wiesbaden. bedtime was fine. actually when I wrote my last post, all three were already asleep. they still go to bed very early (at 7pm), thankfully, which gives me time to do the housework before putting my feet up.

I remember one of my brothers saying that they sold lots of books, dvds and cds before they moved house a few months ago, and I think they did get ok money for it. I will ask him where they sold it.

nutella that latest picture is so cute! and he really does look so much bigger than in the first pictures you had posted! I am getting started on making baby collages for our boys (something I saw on Kirstie's vintage homes which I really liked), so have been going through their baby pictures too. I cant believe they were ever that tiny!

Hello everyone, hello sorchienne and meerlioness. Hope all is well and you don't get too much more snow. Have been a bit spaced out on tramadol and been to the physio with my back but it feels a bit better now. Have been reading this thread all day but have forgotten most of it apart from snow and cheddar! Will get back on form soon. Good luck tomorrow with the gynae outnumbered and hope you get your stitches out soon Linzer. Hope all little ones have slept nicely for you! (I'm in Oregon btw, but am a German teacher!)

jenny how could i forget you - you live in one of our honeymoon stops :) I remember that spaced out tramadol feeling. I really did not like it. But I'm glad that your back is a bit better.

Off for the pre school run, then snow shoveling before rushing into town for the gynaecologist appt. none of the 'not doing anything' I so thoroughly enjoyed yesterday

We get a lot of snow here in our part of Oregon weissdorn (as outnumbered will testify ) as we are at 3500ft. Our local ski resort is about 40 mins drive up the mountain but it only has just over 2 metres of snow at the moment - need some more! And I need my back to get better so I can go too.

Hope the appt goes well outnumbered. It shouldn't hurt and I hope your cycle regulates itself really quickly.

I am really getting into 'the Sunne in Splendour' thanks to you weissdorn! I have it as an actual book so not using my nook currently. Well done on your baby gaining so fast! Obviously on gold top .

Right, back to the book. Good Fridays everyone!

Ok, so DH is looking at a job in Hamburg. It pays £1300 per week after tax, 12 hour days 5 days per week. There is an opportunity for me to go for the same job, slightly reduced hours (we have a 2 yo DS).

I need to know about everything. We'd need a nanny, possibly a nursery place as well for DS. We've looked at apartments and been very impressed; is furnished the norm? What is life like?

I know there would be a language barrier, but we are both quick and eager to learn. We are both 25.

I don't know what else to put in this post really, but if anyone could help I'd be very grateful.

hello slatternly and welcome are you planning to move for a shortish period or longer? Hamburg is a beautiful city bit very big (2nd biggest city in Germany) and quite expensive. were you thinking of living in the centre or suburbs? and where will work be based? there are some gorgeous smaller cities in commuting distance to central Hamburg. I am originally from Lüneburg, which is 30mins by train to the central train station in hamburg. Lüneburg is much more affordable and offers fantastic quality of life. if you need any more info re the north of Germany, feel free to ask.
oh, one thing though, it may be difficult to get a nursery place for your ds, as there are not enough unfortunately. although you may be lucky to be given priority as your ds 'needs' to learn the language. re furnished appt, afaik that's not the norm. most places are unfurnished. and you have to make sure it has a built in kitchen too. how exciting for you

Thankyou outnumbered

We looked on a British expat website and they mostly seemed furnished. It would cost around £4000 to move our worldly goods, and I'm not 100% sure whether to do that or not. Opinions?

We would be working at Hamburg Airport, so fairly central. We would look at an initial period of 2 years before deciding whether to move back, as that would be the point where DS would start school. We would certainly hire a nanny (how do you go about this? What are rates etc?) and would like to place him in a nursery 2 days a week as well, as he is so sociable and chatty and bubbly

Our wage would be about £9000 per calendar month, which is a lot over here but how does that translate over there? Worth it or not?

DH would go out first, set up and I would shut up shop in the UK and follow on 3-4 months later.

I don't want a huge commute as I want to be as close to my DS as I can; 30 minutes would be my maximum, really.

Another thing (and very childish) but... Is it easy to make friends?